Traditional Vampires
by TheCookieWhore
Summary: Nelle Hillon has lived in Northwest her entire life, carefully concealing her chlorokinetic abilities from others, but when the mysterious Fuller family arrive, Nelle might finally meet her match in mysterious Rhett Fuller, and maybe even find love! OCXOC
1. Nelle

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the concepts owned by Stephenie Meyer, because none of the characters are featured, in this fic at least. I am not making any money from this, although I wish I was. Thank you!**

**A/N: Wow, I'm kinda ashamed I've taken so fucking long to post anything on here and I hope you guys like this! Basically, I was re-reading the Twilight Saga which I borrowed from my cousin a couple of years ago and recently re-borrowed and decided to write a fic. But I'm more of one for original ideas and decided to make up all my own stuff for this one! This chapter is sadly just an introduction to my protagonist, Nelle Lucy Hillon, and doesn't have much going on sorry guys, but I hope you can look past it and get to know/like Nelle! The romance will take a while to start, because as any good author will say, love takes time! I hope you enjoy!**

My eyes flicker openly slowly, uncertainly, everything being blurry as they adjust to the light above me, shining down upon me, like heavens have opened. Only it's artificial, and kills the dream of being the afterlife finally coming to greet me. The same light greets me every morning when I get up from my usual slumber of at least ten hours and get up to start my routine day. I don't particularly feel up for getting up today, and I don't really have to. It's a Sunday so I have no school to be rushing off to, and I haven't organised any plans with my friends, so I'm just relaxing for today. I think I deserve the rest for once.

I've never exactly lived the normal lifestyle for a girl of sixteen. When I was a baby, my father left my mom for another woman; she was never certain who this woman was, but she had a feeling it was a lawyer who worked at the same law firm as my father, who was young, single and attractive. Not that long after that, we moved to Northwest, North Carolina. My mom, Helena Jessica Hillon, was surprisingly born in England in a small village just outside the city of York called Weldrake. She moved to the states when she was eighteen to attend university in Chicago, where she met my father, Britt Hillon. Oddly enough, we still keep photos of my father around the house, but I can tell he aired a certain atmosphere of grace and glamour around him when my mom first met him. Even the photographs showed that.

According to her, they fell in love too fast, got married too fast, and had me too fast. They had me when my mother was just nineteen and he'd only recently turned twenty. The relationship deteriorated in a matter of months, because they didn't truly love one another; they'd loved the _idea_ of having a little baby, living in a small town like Northwest, and growing old together. But the reality sadly had proved them very wrong, _very_fast. My mom doesn't regret having me at such a young age, she just tells me she regrets having me with my father, because of what he ended up doing. Apparently when I was two he attempted to gain custody of me, but his attempts were futile and nothing ever happened.

He currently lives with his new wife, Misha, in Salt Lake City, with their two children aged nine and six respectively. The nine year old is a boy named Owen and the six year old is a little girl named Sallie-Barbara, both of whom I've met on numerous visits to his house. In my opinion, my dad isn't too bad, but then again, he isn't my ex-husband; our relationship is nowhere near awkward, but I don't get to see him as much as I'd like to. Misha isn't bad either, and in fact, is nice for a stepmother. She treats me like her own kid and talks to me. My halfies (the nickname I've given my half-siblings) are pretty sweet and I enjoy babysitting to get to know them better, so all in all, my family life is okay.

Same cannot be said for my social life. I go to the smaller of Northwests' two optional high schools and once I graduate, I've chosen to move to Salt Lake City to attend university because I want to try living with my dad for a while, and see how that works out. The more typical high school people attend is Northwest Guilford High, but my mom didn't like the school system too much and opted to send me to the other school. According to her it's too strict when it comes to simple things such as dress code and others, which, based upon the few times I've seen students from there, I have to sort of agree. Northwest Overman High is cheaper and a lot smaller than Northwest Guilford. Only 321 students, including myself, attend and getting a place is surprisingly hard because of the sheer rush of people who want to send their kids here. Why?

Well, we have two of the best English and languages departments in North Carolina, apparently, so a lot of people knew to the area of Northwest want their kids here; despite the fact Guilford offers much better sciences, physical education and maths. But because today's world is all about travel and racial commodity, speaking good foreign languages and having non-illiterate children is apparently more important to most people who decide to move here. But you're more likely to get in the longer you've lived in the town, and because I've been here practically my entire life with my mom, Helena, I was automatically accepted. You either have to be incredibly influential or incredibly rich to score a place otherwise. And not many people who move here tend to be that.

Then again, you could argue people prefer Overman because the mayor's son attends our school, and is coincidentally in my year, as well as one of my friends. That's probably one of the most interesting factors about my life, being friends with the mayor of Northwests' son, Isaac William, Richard William's son. I met Isaac after accidentally giving myself a rather nasty paper cut on the first day of middle school and our teacher, then Miss Olivia Parstowe, now Mrs Olivia Burnholme, chose Isaac to be the one to escort me to the nurse's office so I could get a dinosaur plaster put on my arm. I don't have a tendency to get papercuts much, but when I do, they tend to end up pretty messy and I leak blood everywhere.

I think she chose Isaac because according to himself, when he was younger he'd found it hard making friends because his mother was fussy on _whom_ he became friends with. She apparently had this insufferable habit of deciding whether a child was 'good enough' to hang out with her son based solely off their name. I don't remember Lorie William well because she died when Isaac was six, and that was before we met. All I remember was that she had wonderful flame red hair which Isaac inherited.

Isaac took after his mother according to pretty much everyone in Northwest, and it shows, based upon the framed photographs which litter his expensively furnished front room. He inherited her flame red hair which is constantly in a state of messy, unbrushedness and burns around his slim face, which is fair skinned like the rest of his lanky body. His face is slim and has a sharp point at the chin, with his nose ending in a similar point, and his cheekbones even seem to have a slight point to them. His eyes are the same colour as his father's though, a relaxed, misty grey colour which tends to soothe people. And of course, being incredibly rich, he only wears designer clothes. He even owns a genuine leather jacket from Italy, but he's pretty kind when it comes to birthday presents and Christmas gifts.

He's also kind enough to give me lifts to school in his blue Mazda, and it beats having to do the usual half an hour walk I used to do before he earned his driver's licence two months ago. It's currently October, and my birthday is in November, so I have a month to go before I can get a car of my own and start driving myself around, not having to rely on Isaac anymore. Sure, it won't be something incredibly expensive like Isaac's Mazda, but it'll be something that can get me places when I need to and will save me a lot of time taking trains to airports when I need to visit my dad if mom can't drive me.

You're probably wondering what my name is by now, well, it's obvious my surname is going to be Hillon because that's the surname of my parents even though they're divorced. My name is Nelle Lucy Hillon. Like the normal first name Nell only with an extra 'e' on the end because my mother wanted me to stand out in cause there were any other Nell's in my classes at school. There never have been though, I've always been the only Nelle and I guess I'm glad because of that. My friend, Markus Moon, more commonly just known as Mark tells me it sucks to be one of three Markus' at our high school. The rest of my friends surprisingly don't face the same problems. I'm one of a group of five, consisting of myself, Isaac the mayor's son, Mark Moon or 'Double M' as some people call him, Alyssa Graham more commonly known as Lissy by pretty much the entire school, Vanessa 'Van' Hooper my overall best friend, and of course, me.

I'm not part of my school's 'in crowd' but I'm not unpopular either, I kind of sit inbetween, and I like my position because no-one picks on me, but I'm not constantly being pestered. Probably a good thing. I can…Do something no-one else I know can. I can control plants, or chlorokinesis as it's more commonly known as in the comic book world. I asked my friend Mark the technical term because he's always been big on comics, and he especially loves DC which features femme fatal villain, Poison Ivy, who shares my power. I can make dying plants come back to life, create them and shape them. It'd be even better if I could talk to them but I can't because they lack mouths.

None of my friends know about my chlorokinetic abilities, again borrowing the word from Mark, because I'm not sure they'd believe me. Even though I've known them for pretty much my entire life, telling them would be painfully awkward and the chance of them not believing me would be even worse. Besides, in a world where supervillains don't exist, being able to manipulate and control plants isn't too revolutionary nor something which can enhance my life in any particular way. Oh well, I guess keeping the garden nice for mom and being able to bring back the prettiest plants we own saves money, so it does have some benefits.

But I'm not planning on going all Poison Ivy on the world and valuing plants over humans, that's just insane. Although I have a strange connection to the plants I own, which means I can tell when they're dying or if they're sick, I don't view them as my family really so there's no particular emotional attachment, at least to an extent. I don't even really look like Poison Ivy, luckily, because neither of my parents had red hair or green eyes.

Unlike most the girl's I know, I take more after my father when it comes to generalisation. I've inherited my mom's slim jawed, slim face which isn't heart shaped like Van's is but apparently still looks nice. My lips are filled out and maybe a little too plump for my jawline but people seem to overlook it when they ask me out, which is pretty rare. My nose is long and thin, with a slightly snub end but Mark says it makes me look 'cute' and my eyes are large and wide-spaced apart. I pluck my eyebrows regularly so they don't get too filled out and stay arched and thin. It hurts like hell, but I put up with it. My skin tone is described as fair by most people I meet, and is pale due to the fact I only burn in the sun opposed to tanning, and I have a rash of freckles coating my nose and upper arms. My eyes are hazel brown in shade and look distinctively darker compared to my strawberry blonde shade hair. I inherited my hair and eyes from my dad, Britt. My hair is waving and stops just above my mid back because I had it bobbed when I was about five and it's taken a while to grow out to the normal length of most girls I know. I stand at 5'6" in height, aka 168 cms, and my build is slender but plumper than both my female friends and I'm often called 'curvaceous' by my mom and dad.

I'm not the prettiest girl in my year group, that's obviously Lisa Sellers, but I've had a few boyfriend's over my years at Overman, three to be precise, but none of the relationships have ever gotten to serious sadly. I've never 'consummated my relationship' with any of my boyfriend's because the relationship never got serious enough to even so much as approach that level of commitment. The three boys I dated during my years here were Tony Lindsay who's now going out with Julia Freeman, our very own class president; Deon Arnold, star quarter back of our Raging Falcon's football team, now dating Charlotte Elliot, gymnastics champion; and Corey Emerson, who's currently still single but I think he's going to get a girlfriend soon enough. All three of my boyfriends were very much obsessed with dating, something I lacked which was why the relationships never worked.

In a school of 321 students, your dating choices are limited so you either have to find someone perfect for you, or sadly give up and wait until you leave or maybe hope someone new will arrive. Life's tough like that but sadly something we have to put up with. In small towns your dating and social life can be tiresome and annoying simply because your choice in men and women is incredibly limited, but sometimes you simply have to put up with these factors and simply wait and hope for Mr/Mrs Right to show up at your doorstep, bouquet of flowers in hand.

* * *

After I made the obviously uneventful pad downstairs, checked the phone for mom whilst she was out but no-one had decided to call us, and padded into the kitchen, it was already half four in the afternoon. Time really must fly while you're sitting at home wondering what to do. Being a nurse means that my mom has a habit of working at weekends, so I don't see much of her most of the time sadly; she's only really around in the mornings before school, gets home at about ten o'clock at night, and the only day she ever has off is Saturday, so she's usually working if you haven't guessed.

Our kitchen is a kitchen-diner as some people like to call it; basically our kitchen and our dining room are combined together partly because it saves space, but partly because it saved us money when we decided to extend the kitchen. It's painted a light blue colour which might be a bit stupid because of if we ever had little children round, but most of my mom's friends have kids past the age of six so we've been safe so far. Solid, oak wood table and several plastic chairs positioned around it although on an average day to day basis we only need two because it's just me and mom. The floor is wooden like most of our house, bar bedrooms and the bathroom which is tile, because they're easier to clean than carpets. Our entire house is full of cool, light colours, including my own room.

I painted my room a sort of violet colour because it's my favorited colour, even if it has a habit of clashing with my strawberry blonde hair. I own several purple dresses for formal occasions because they're in my favourite colour and don't make my weight balloon too much. I have a large collection of posters, mainly of anime and manga characters, which splatter my walls most time, at both my mom and dad's houses but mom's is overall more covered, because I live there more; a few ornaments here and there, one incredibly expensive one from my grandma, mom's mom, of two dancing sugar plum fairies. The rest are just tat I've bought whilst on holiday's, the odd dolphin or seashell here and then because mom loves the sunshine.

I'm not as bigger fan as her; like I've said, I burn easily during hot weather and only really enjoy going the beach if I'm with friends or I feel awkward when it's just me and mom. Sure, it's funnier with dad and Misha because I'm allowed to take Sallie into the sea for a paddle and go swimming with Owen, but on the odd occasion I talk to other kids on the beach and make a couple of new friends. I even manage to keep in touch with some of them on the odd occasion and have formed some pretty strong friendships. Although sometimes dad lets me take friends with me, because he knows I enjoy spending time with those of my own age, then again who doesn't?

Dad lives in a much busier neighbourhood than mom, meaning there's a lot more kids around, especially because his house is near a large apartment block where a large amount of people around my age live with their families, so naturally I made a couple of friends whilst staying there during the spring, summer, autumn and winter breaks from school. I've even gone down on the odd weekend a couple of times, and met up with my main group of friends there. I was introduced to them through my dad, after he accepted to attend a barbeque based party by one of the inhabitants of the flat block.

That was how I met the oddly named Chastity Zamora. Chastity's mother, Clare, was widowed after her husband, Peter, had died whilst she was pregnant with Chastity but had left her a good life insurance policy which gave her enough money to buy the apartment where her and Chastity, more commonly known as Chas, have lived for the past sixteen and a half years. She never remarried after Peter's death nor apparently has ever had a proper relationship, so Chas has always been an only child, but, lucky for her, she had another girl of her age just next door. That girl would go on to become her best friend.

Lola Jensen is the total opposite of Chas, which makes their friendship borderline funny. Chas is loud, outspoken, friendly, slightly domineering and a little bossy; Lola is meek, quiet, slightly nervous around strangers, easily gets bossed about by others and is very much a follower. They don't even look alike. Chas is African-American, with her father from Uganda and her mother from a small village in the Caribbean; Lola is papery white, sort of creamy coloured; Chas stands at an impressive 5'11" aged just sixteen; Lola turned seventeen recently, and only manages 5'1"; Chas' hair is dark brown, almost black, and incredibly curly in an almost afro fashion; Lola's is cropped short and is a light, caramel colour, slightly darker than my eyes; Chas' dresses in bright colours with dark leather jackets and high boots; while Lola prefers cooler, calmer colours, simple jackets and trainers.

They're my two main friends at dads', although they've introduced me to several other friends of theirs, all of whom seem nice enough and fairly polite. Besides, the best part about visiting Salt Lake City its constant swimming facilities and lakes which are perfect to visit during the summer, and even the spring if it's insufferably warm. Northwest has never reached too much of a high temperature which is why I prefer it here, I couldn't stand living with my father because of the intensely hot weather which is intolerable for someone who prefers the cold like me.

When I was a little girl, I used to ask my mom if we could move to Alaska so I could 'run with the wolves and have a pet one' but my mother politely declined my pleads and I soon began to accept my time in Northwest the more and more friends I began to make. My mom worked long hours as a nurse so I'd often be sent to nurseries or child minders from a young age, despite my mother trying to cut down her work hours until I was older. It was through child minding that I met Vanessa 'Van' Irma Hooper, my soon-to-be-best-friend as I liked to call her. Vanessa was born the daughter of Northwests' Chief of Police, Cary Hooper, and his Egyptian born wife, Raquel, with two siblings, Josef Carey who's currently attending university in Wyoming, and Tabitha Leigh who's a year ahead of us in school and will graduate soon. When she was three she received one more sibling, a little brother, Murray, who died of SIDS when he was still a baby. Her mother developed depression not long after.

I don't see much of Mrs Hooper, even when I sleep over at Vanessa's house. She spends pretty much all of her time in the master bedroom, sleeping, reading or watching television most of the day; the death of Murray accordingly bought clinical depression upon her, and my mother is the one who treats her if she gets especially bad. Being best friends with Raquel's daughter meant our mother's became friends as well because we practically lived at each other's homes from a young age. I don't like asking about Murray because it's an uncomfortable topic, even for Vanessa.

Although she didn't know him that long, she distinctively remembers the night he died. Apparently the entire household went into mass panic, her mother and father were running around, calling ambulances and trying to resuscitate Murray but it didn't work. He'd sadly died during the night of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS as it's more commonly known by most.

Part of me is glad that nothing's ever happened to Sallie or Owen, my half-siblings, because they're good, nice, polite kids and treat me like their big sister who lives there full time. I often take Sallie shopping with me and the two of us often go to lunch together at a café of some sort. She'll usually order something like a burger and fries while I'll usually have the same. Hey, I've never said I've been the highest of standards, and besides, I'm incredibly fussy with food so I enjoy things I know I like. Sallie shares that trait with me and I guess we must've inherited it from dad.

I'm not, and doubt I ever will be, one of those kids who wishes their parents would get back together. Why? Well, my dad is happy with Misha and mom knows she couldn't be the woman dad had an affair with, so they get along well. How does she know? Misha only arrived in America about ten years ago, when I was seven, and my parents split when I was barely a year old. Misha is originally from Latvia, and when she first arrived here she barely spoke a word of English. She met my dad when she was twenty five and he was twenty seven back in 2003, within a year they were engaged and already had Owen. By then, dad had a steady job as a chemist running his own store in Salt Lake City, the precise reason why he and Misha were able to afford to buy their nice house there.

My dad didn't have a job or a source of steady income when I was a two year old girl, the precise reason why he didn't get custody of me. My mom on the other hand, she'd already got a job as a nurse in Northwest and had inherited the house from her deceased father, so she was overall deemed as the fitter parent. Besides, I wouldn't want to leave my mom for my dad, because she's been the one who's raised me all these years and thus, I owe my life to her. I couldn't just jump ship from mom to dad because dad not only has Misha, but he also has Sallie-Barbara and Owen, two things my mother doesn't have.

Most people are shocked when they find out she's my mom, too. They think she's like my older sister or something, assuming her father remarried and got a new wife, resulting in me. But that's very wrong; my mom just had me age nineteen and I've not even turned seventeen yet. She could always have another child but tells me she doesn't want to because of her job and that she'd end up neglecting me to look after her new baby, but I hope she finds a new husband at least, children or not being produced. I'm no mind reader, chlorokinesis is my ability, but I can tell mom really does want another baby, so she can have a child around once I've flown the coop so to speak. Because of my age I'm obviously going to move, so it's inevitable that I'll get a baby sibling if she really wants to have another child; but she's told me she plans on going for fertility treatment if she does eventually decide yes.

Looking up at the plant pots on the window, I realised they looked a little bit droopier than normal. Taking a deep breath, I reached out my hand and slowly drifted it over the plants which immediately perked up the second my thought of 'grow' hit them. My powers work in mysterious ways, but I like them personally. I mean sure, I'm no Wonder Woman, but saving my mom's beloved plants keeps us both happy and I do feel like they're a little special and make me stand out. Call me vain, and I guess I am, but I'm certain there's more people like me out there. I can't be the one human being on earth who can just make plants grow or do things similarly weird and interesting. There's probably much more dangerous, effective powers out there than mine, but if I've learned anything from Mark, plants can be used to protect yourself.

Take a look at Poison Ivy; she used flowers to take down Batman. Sure, being totally gorgeous, seductive and manipulative helped, but the plant control protected her when it didn't work on him. I've never exactly been a comic book fan, but I've read a couple with Mark when I've gone round to his. He's collected all the Iron Mans up to date, most of which his father used to own, and is now planning on doing the same with The Avengers. I'm not sure if he's either into Marvel or DC more because he has the odd collection of either, all I know is that he's one big comic book fan boy.

The sound of the latch clicking brought me back to my senses from plant saving and I realised it was mom arriving home to make dinner. She's allowed an hour break to come home and have tea with me before she returns to the hospital to finish her shift, but I don't mind too much. Tea, doing my homework, watching some telly or listening to music, sometimes both, then bed is a normal routine for me. I usually shower before bed or have a bath, but sometimes I decide to do it in the morning so I'm generally fresher for school. I planned on doing it that night and went towards the front door to greet her.


	2. Rhett

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight Stephenie Meyer does, however I do own any original concepts which arise in this. I do not own Brie Gwin De Luca however; she belongs to my close friend, and the incredible,** **frostfur72****, and so give her all credit please guys!**

**A/N: Sorry this has taken so long guys! I recently went back to school and have been settling in, as well as being ambushed with a shit load of homework so this took ages to conceive and finish! This chapter, for a change, is in Rhett (my sort of Edward)'s POV, opposed to Nelle's. I plan on the fanfic having all the odd number chapters be in Nelle's POV, while the even number one's being in Rhett's, but things might change. This chapter will basically introduce you to the Cullen's other set of 'cousins, the Fuller/Wise gang and I hope you like them! They're coven hasn't got an official name yet, so if anyone could suggest one for me, I'd be most grateful! Hope you enjoy and please R & R! **

I've never exactly been a big fan of the annual move that my family must partake in every couple of years, but it's part of the vampire lifestyle and thus, something I've become accustomed to over the years we've been together. The hardest part is probably adjusting to the new schools' we choose to attend; Damon often teases me, asking why I attend human school's if I dislike them so much, but what else is there to do? Sitting at home completely alone, with my siblings at school and parents at work, with only my history books to read and television to watch has never had any appeal to me. Sure, I can always paint and explore my artistic, creative side, but I need inspiration, and some days that is not within me.

Brie and Leon decided to set off ahead of us that morning, because they were always excited at the concept of change and both of them probably wanted to be alone together. Whenever you see Leon, Brie will never be that far away, and it works exactly the other way round. They enjoy each other's company more than any other pair of vampires I've met, and are borderline inseparable. Only Bella and Edward Cullen can possibly rival Brie and Leon's closeness. The Cullen family act as our sort of cousins in the vampire world of relationships and semi-families. Carlisle Cullen, the head of their coven, is the closest thing to a brother Quincy, my adoptive father, has ever had, meaning that our families have naturally grown close over the years.

So close in fact that we're to be meeting up this weekend for a family hunt, like we do most months. Last time we travelled to Forks to visit them, so this month they're visiting us in our new home of Northwest, North Carolina. It surprises me how long they've been able to stay in Forks but Bella's father, Charlie, lives there and they wish for him to stay close to her and Edward's daughter, Renesmee. Renesmee was conceived when Bella was still human, and thus is a vampire-human hybrid. She fascinates my father, Quincy, who plans to use her as a form of helping perfect the new drug he's trying to make. It will apparently allow vampires to conceive children and Bella and Edward have kindly allowed him to take a sample of Renesmee's DNA because she too has allowed it.

Part of me considered staying at home and phoning Edward; the two of us used to be closer than most because we were the only members of our families without mates. That changed when Edward met Bella Swan and currently I'm the only single member of either family. I will admit, I envy both my parents and my siblings who have found their soul-mates. Quincy, my father, and Letitia my mother are together; Leon has Brie, and Damon has Nora. I have no-one. But it's admittedly my fault.

I am a painstakingly picky vampire, and when it comes to mates, I am a literal nightmare. My beauty naturally attracts them, like any good predator, and I am able to captivate both humans and vampires alike, but none of them have ever truly captivated nor interested me. I have met some incredibly endearing females of both species who I've found cute or intelligent or sweet, but none of them have ever made me fall in love. I've only ever been able to make friends with other females I've met, never found my mate. My mother once attempted to pair me up with my former adoptive sister Juni, but it didn't work out. It couldn't have worked out, even if my mom didn't realise it.

Juni Carter, formerly Juni Wise, was and probably still is beautiful. Then again, what vampire isn't apart from a small minority? Not as stunning as Brie or Leon who were naturally over-attractive as humans, but still eye-catching and captivating like any good vampire must be. Her blazing golden eyes, which all of our family share due to our 'vegetarian' lifestyle, went perfectly with her chocolate brown coloured hair that hung around her shoulders. She had a fringe from her human life which would never grow out but she liked it that way. She stood at a petite 5'3" with a small waist line and skin pale as snow, which sparkled like diamonds when caught in the sunlight, like all vampires. Her facial features were sharper than that of the other girls in my family, but they made her edgily attractive. She left about eight years ago, choosing to live in Texas with two more family members of ours; Davis and Kitty.

She left because I didn't reciprocate the feelings she harboured. I think we were the first case of vampires were the female had found her mate but the male hadn't. I sadly couldn't feel the love beyond siblings towards Juni which she deeply felt for me. I hated myself for not being able to reciprocate her feelings, but they were impossible to feel back. Juni was a sweet, polite girl but she wasn't for me. Since she left she barely spoke of me, but part of me tried to believe this was for the best; I hoped she'd gotten over me and somehow managed to find her true mate. That her feelings towards me were wrong and she'd met the man for her finally, but according to Davis she'd done the exact opposite. She still loved me wholeheartedly.

Trying to push those thoughts of my ex-sibling to the back of my mind, I stared out of the car window into the open countryside and woodland which surrounded our house. Naturally we'd chosen to build our house in the middle of the woods so we would be surrounded by our animal pray, and this time we'd chosen an old-fashioned log cabin style house. It had been Nora's idea, and because the last house had been designed by me, mom figured it was her turn to design our home. Nora's idea of a home was old-fashioned with modern interior but it reflected her personality. Old-fashioned with creative touches.

I wasn't riding in my car, I wasn't even driving, and I was actually sitting in the back seat. It was Nora's car we'd taken this morning, but Damon was driving. Nora owned a white Honda Civic because she'd always been a fan of smaller car makes, because of her smallness. Damon's the only one of us she lets drive her car, but go figure; he _is_ her _husband_ so it's logical. They've been together for over a hundred years with no major arguments that I can remember, and trust me, I have a good memory; so it makes sense he's the only one allowed to drive her beloved Civic; even if, at 6'7", he has a near impossible time so much as fitting into the damn car.

My brother, Damon, stands at an impressively tall 6'7" all though he is forever frozen at seventeen; a factor of life which often puzzles me but apparently he inherited his ridiculously tall gene from his father who peaked seven foot tall, so it sorta figures. His skin has an olive hue to it, because his father was Spanish and his mother was from Nepal, meaning he can pass himself off as human better than the rest of us. His face is made of all sharply edged lines and strong prominent features, excluding his lips which are soft and rounded. He has a thick set of shortly cut, slightly curled dark hair and the standard golden eyes of our family.

My sister, Nora, couldn't be more different. Nora stands at a mere 5'0", almost an entire two foot smaller than Damon which makes them quite the spectacle together. Her father apparently was also small, reaching only 5'5" by adulthood, which pretty much explains why she's so tiny. She's the palest of us, a sort of ghostly white colour and therefor has to wear more make up than all of us put together or she'd never be able to pass off as a human being. Her face is soft and rounded, with dimples either side of her mouth which easily show when she smiles on of her usual smiles. Her hair is the most striking thing though; its copper coloured, like Edward's, only more on the red side and reaches just above her thighs.

That day she was wearing another one of her famously eye-catching outfits; white dress shirt, topped with an emerald green blazer, almost navy coloured skinny jeans and a pair of brown heeled boots which made it to her knee level. They'd have probably been calf length on a woman of a more average height that had size three feet but Nora had always been tiny so they made to the knee. Damon was dressed in a much more reassuringly normal style; fading grey t-shirt which was such a dark shade it almost descended into black, a simplistic silver pendent hanging around his neck and brushing against it, fully black jeans which flared outwards at then ends and weren't as tight as Nora's, with a simplistic pair of much lighter grey converses. He wore no jacket although I'd told him it'd be more intelligent to wear one because it was a cool day, at least a cool day to humans, and he'd look even more odd not wearing one. But Damon, being Damon, decided that he didn't want to wear one and arguing with him has proved futile many times before.

I guess I'd picked a fairly sensible outfit for that day as well; I don't like wearing as dark colours as Leon, Brie and Damon choose, but no way was I going for the bright, blinding shades Nora likes, I prefer the paler colours but combine them with darker ones. And I've never been one for too much pattern or logoing, unlike my siblings. I chose a simple dark jacket, a sort of misty grey colour, a little lighter than Damon's shirt, which I wasn't sure of the texture of, navy blue t-shirt and a pair of much lighter, sort of cloudy blue, jeans with a pair of white converses. Leaning back into the seats of the car, trying to make myself more comfortable, I stared out of the window. The light streamed through it gently and hit the skin on my hand, causing it to erupt into a glistening mass of shining, like a thousand diamonds had been neatly embedded underneath the surface of my skin.

Sighing, I looked upwards at the sun and closed my eyes, concentrating lightly on focusing my power entirely on it. Like the rest of my family, bar Quincy my father, I had acquired a gift. Like most, I acquired it after being turned, with only Leon having his ability of electrokinesis during his human life. I had acquired a power simply known as 'twilight manipulation', the ability to control both the dark and the light. The moon and the sun all rolled into one. Focusing my power directly on the glimmering sun in the sky, I made it dull itself, relaxing its hazy glow and letting the cold fully seep into the air. It may have been a chilly day, but with the sun still wholesomely shining in the sky, we were still all in danger of being discovered. Upon this notion, I heard the gentle sound of Nora softly moving round in her seat.

"Thanks for that!" Her thick, Irish accent immediately made the sentence sound happier and I couldn't help but break out into a smile. For some reason, Nora's smiles always acted infectious to all she met, even if she could be the solely most annoying being in existence. I wasn't closest to Nora by any means, and I doubt I ever will be; Leon is the one I have the most in common with and the one I can easily talk to on a daily basis, but Nora could cheer up a bear with a sore head, so it's just something about her.

"No problem…" I shrugged slightly and looked up at her. "Excited, aren't you? Meeting all those new people, making all those friends."

"Oh, of course!" Nora stated matter-of-factually, a proud smile erupting on her beautiful face. "I love meeting the humans and getting to know them! It makes me feel almost as if I'm one again!" Unlike some, such as my adoptive cousin Rosalie Hale, Elenora Mainer, more commonly known as Nora even in her human years, was thrilled to become a vampire. Her happiness after transformation seems to seep onto others and make them enjoy their new lifestyle, even though it isn't her special gift.

Nora's 'gift' is similar to another vampire who is now deceased by the name of Victoria, simply known as 'enhanced self-preservation'. In Nora's case it stems from her naturally ability to hide as a human, due to people being hostile towards she and her father's lifestyle of circus performers. When she was turned it stemmed into something entirely of its own and pretty much makes her the world's hide-and-seek champion. Even Brie, the fastest one in our family, has a hard time catching her when we train together she's that good. Nora was born in Darkley, Armagh in Northern Ireland which explains the accent. That was where the family met her and, because of her turning, she could never grow out of the thick accent she picked up as a human, and still to this day makes no attempt to imitate an American one. Nora has the vocal mimicry talent of a dead mole, and cannot cover up her incredibly prominent Irish one to save her life. The same cannot be said for me.

I was born in England, and actually spent the first good sixty years of being a vampire traveling around the United Kingdom, but I usually choose to put on an American accent which convinces others. Sure, there are traces of an English undertone in it, but most people don't pay attention to it. I mean, when you're a vampire, people have a tendency to notice your looks first, personality later. Everyone has their own shallow side, especially vampires, so I don't care _too_ much when the human girls and boys stare at me. I only start caring if they begin to persistently harass and borderline stalk me everywhere I go.

Although lately, even my families seemed a little bit odder than normal, and we're an openly odd family, not including the vampire side of course. Quincy, aka dad, was totally wrapped up in developing his new 'vampire child enabling drug' as we'd nicknamed it; Letitia, aka mum, was busy settling into her new job as a nurse working in a children's ward at Northwest Hospital; and my siblings were obviously invested in the normal things for them. With Brie it was her appearance and Leon, with Leon it was his human family visiting in a couple of weeks and Brie, with Nora it was meeting new humans at school and Damon and with Damon it was training tonight and Nora. I had nothing much to occupy myself with, bar school, and even that didn't seem to appeal to me too much. I've never been a big fan of starting new schools, but it only gets worse when you start having to turn down the human girls and see the looks of upset or anger on their faces. At times like that I'm thankful I don't have Edward's telepathy.

* * *

When we arrived at the school, it was pleasantly small. I'd never been a big fan of huge, bustling schools with hundreds of students, and cramped conditions. Northwest Overman High consisted of five matching buildings made of coppery coloured worn bricks, as if it needed to be rebuilt, and one slightly smaller building made of white plaster which I immediately guessed was the gym. I figured the gym must have been rebuilt because it looked different and newer than the other's. It was clouded with an open surrounding of woodland and shrubbery, being built on the edge of the stretch of woods which eventually led to our home.

I quickly spotted Brie and Leon, but then again, they're pretty hard to miss on the mistiest of days. They were standing by Leon's bike, talking to each other, their bodies a couple of centre meters apart. Leon stood at 6'2", two inches taller than me, while Brie reached 5'8" being the tallest female in our family. Like the rest of our family, bar our patriarch and leader, Leon and Brie possessed special abilities. Leon had electrokinesis in life which passed onto him after death, only enhanced his control; while Brie was something incredibly rare in her own right. A shapeshifter. She could change into different people and the odd couple of animals, but usually just used them to make herself look like different forms of people so she could move around without people realising who she truly was.

She was still going by the name of Brie Gwin Fuller, but didn't look like her true self. She still was the obviously most beautiful member of our small family unit, but had edited herself slightly so she couldn't be traced. Her once mid-back length, straight as wood, pitch black hair which had a fringe with the tips dyed a light shade of blonde, was now no longer like that. It still reached her mid-back length, however had edited to a chocolate fudge colour and although straight, curled itself slightly at the ends, with the fringe now gone and had a simple centre parting, openly displaying her breath-taking features. Her golden eyes, a trademark of a vegetarian vampire, matched the hair perfectly and her slender, graceful figure was dressed in a pale pair of icy blue jeans, a white tank-top styled shirt which dipped and showed her cleavage slightly, with a lavender leather jacket coating her upper body with a pair of beige heeled boots on her feet which met her calf.

Leon stood towering slightly over her, his slender build looking shockingly pale compared to his darkly coloured clothing. He had a deep grey-green hoodie, pitch black t-shirt with the Five Finger Death Punch band logo covering the centre, and greyish coloured jeans with blackish-blue bovver boots. His golden blonde hair glinted slightly in the sunlight, matching his eyes almost as perfectly as Brie's altered hair matched her own. It was cut short, coming down to about his ear length and was a lot neater than my own. His tattoos which he'd acquired in his human life were covered up by clothing and his build looked slightly more muscular than my own, because of the events leading up to his own almost death. Leon's face was composed of entirely sharp, sculpted angels and defined features, much more notably sharper than my own and even Damon's, which makes him the second most attractive member of our family, being only beaten by Brie.

Naturally, most of the Northwest Overman High School students were staring at them, but their eyes quickly averted to us the second the car came to a halt in an empty parking space and we all stepped out to make the spectacle even more shocking. After three hundred and nineteen years of life, you're used to the reactions of humans when they first see you, which explained why Leon and Brie simply chose to ignore them and wrap themselves up in their own little world. The odd member of the student body cast me a look but most of them were directed at the others. I guess I'm apparently the most normal one of us, so it's my job to be overlooked. Til' the girls find out I'm single, then I'm suddenly the one everyone pays attention.

I guessed that once upon a time, Damon, Nora, Brie and maybe even Leon suffered from the constant harassment of human's attracted to them for their looks and interesting traits, but I've been suffering with such troubles for precisely three hundred and nineteen years. I've adjusted to it. Every once in a while someone will try a new technique which will amuse, maybe even impress me, but I've never met the human, or even vampire, who is my true soul mate and will spend the rest of existence with me. That is the true reason why I've envied those such as Brie, Leon, Damon and Nora, and even our former family members Davis and Kitty for finding their true loves who they can be totally happy with. Even though they departed over thirty years before, I still admit I miss the two of them.

Davis 'Davy' Vance was turned by my adoptive father, Quincy, about a hundred years before I was, being well over four hundred years old. He flitted between our family for many years, and when I first joined he was gone, off exploring the rest of the developing world. When he returned, about ten years later, he had bought someone back with him; a young, Spanish vampire named Katarina Vance after taking on his surname, but she quickly acquired the nickname 'Kitty' due to her quick, agile, cat-like grace and fondness for the animals, which she refused to feed from. They stayed with us from then on until about thirty eight years ago Davy came to the decision that he wanted to resume his traveling, care free lifestyle and the two set off once more; they pop in every once in a while, but I have a feeling it'll be quite some time before they decide to stay with us again. Davy always preferred to have his own space, opposed to being stuck with us, so it's logical he'd want to be alone with Kitty. But I figured I had the right to envy them, just for once in my incredibly long life.

* * *

Lessons bought pretty much nothing to me, except a basic repeating of some things I knew, and the occasional thing I didn't. At Northwest Overman the Junior year's History class were taught about the Stone Age, which was a pretty nice change from most of the high school's I'd ever attended over points of my life. Luckily, Brie had chosen similar subjects to me, so in classes the teacher usually placed us together and I wasn't forced to sit next to some poor human girl who stared at me like I was Jesus reincarnate. In English I was stuck in one of those unfortunate situations, next to a small, brunette girl named Joanne Taylor who spent most of the hour lesson asking me questions about where I'd lived before I moved to Northwest and generally trying to pass herself off as more interesting than she truly was. I didn't hate her persistent questions or talking, I just pitied her really. The way she felt like she had to make herself seem more interesting or exciting to make me pay interest.

The others had a much more pleasant time as far as I'd heard back from them when we all grouped back together when the lunch break reared its usual head. We picked the seat furthest away from the window for obvious reasoning, which was located off to the side, nearest the exit doors; maybe it showed something that if a gaggle of students came up to us to interrogate us about who we were and what we were up to, we'd have a fair break which enabled us to look human. When I first arrived to the table, Nora was missing from it, but it didn't surprise me. Her, being a typical social butterfly, would be talking to her newest human best friend and we all knew it. Only Leon and Damon sat at the table by my arrival, but Brie arrived a matter of a minute later from her art class and took her place next to Leon.

We always sat in the same formation at our chosen lunch table at every school we ever attended, on the right hand side of the table would be Leon and Brie, whilst on the left it would go me, Damon and Nora on the end because she could fit. It helped that these tables were shaped like rectangles opposed to circles, or Leon and I would practically be brushing elbows when we sat down. With someone of Leon's height, Damon's muscle and Brie's fussiness, a small circular table would make hell on earth come to us because we'd be bickering like cat's and mice. A plate of pasta, tomato sauce, topped off with cheese sat in front of me but I'd barely touched it; eating was unnecessary but I tried to make myself eat some so I seemed a little more human. Plates of chicken salads sat in front of both Leon and Brie, who were surprisingly tucking in quite well, but Damon only had a drink of water. He never ate much at school, often claiming to the friends he made that he preferred to eat at home because he felt more comfortable. For someone like him, he isn't at all the 'tall, idiotic giant' which many people see him as.

"How was that Taylor girl in English?" Typical for Brie to start off the conversation, especially when it comes to the smallest hint of me finding my romantic interest. I could practically feel Damon and Leon's ears pick up, and typically, Leon commented on this first.

"What Taylor girl?" He asked, staring from between me and his wife.

"The girl who sat next to me in English…" I muttered half-heartedly. "She was pleasant enough but a little bit annoying…" It all came out as a sort of sighing sound and all three of my adoptive siblings sighed, a collective eye roll and eyebrow raise went up around the table. "Look!" I insisted. "It was nothing personal; she just wasn't really my type!" I sighed. "She seemed too desperate to try and make herself interesting and even if I did go out with her, it would never have truly lasted!"

"You're too fussy!" Damon laughed, rolling his eyes, causing Leon and Brie to laugh themselves, a collective 'that's so Rhett' aura immersing around the table. I knew we got a few glances from fellow students for that, but only a couple actually bothered to stare before getting bored, simply because they had no clue what we were even laughing about. Their laughs were strongly distinctive as ever; Damon's a low, booming growl, Leon's a sharp, cynical bark and Brie's a light, fluttering melody. When they'd calmed down enough to regain their composure, I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders, trying to ignore them. This was a common source of humour amongst my siblings; I'd grown used to their regular teasing over the subject of dating.

"At least he has standards." Leon hit me on the arm and grinned at me, his face looking twice as handsome whenever it twisted into a sarcastic, dangerous type smile. "I think I'd personally have him fussy as heck, rather than some idiot who'd date any pretty girl who said a couple nice things, right?" Brie nodded at her husband and smiled herself, her entire facing blooming into a perfectly sculpted flower, her golden eyes glittering.

"Of course." She reached over and grasped hold of my hand. "You just have to wait for the right person to come along, I sure did, but the payoff was worth it!" She glanced back at Leon and I had a horrible feeling they'd go off into their own private world, or, even more terrifying, end up kissing in public. And when I say 'kissing', I mean a full blown make out session between the two of them. Thank god Nora turned up at that moment to save my dignity.

"Hey guys!" Her voice pretty much erupted throughout the entire dining room, but its infections tone made all four of us break out into a smile. She was waving insanely, her coppery coloured hair bouncing around her head with the sheer amount of gusto she was putting into it. And of course, in typical Nora fashion, she had someone accompanying her. The girl stood about six inches about Nora and was significantly plumper, although nowhere near obese or even fat. Her face was soft and pleasant, with a definite prettiness about her, and outlined in a cascade of strawberry blonde curls which reached her mid back. Her skin was fair in tonnage and she had a collection of freckles about her which made her slightly cuter than she would be if she didn't possess them; her eyes were a warm, almost comforting fudge brown colour and looked down at the ground almost shyly. She was dressed in a pair of slightly darkening blue jeans, with a paler sky blue t-shirt and a blue jacket, which's shade, was the colour of the sea in winter and finished off her mainly blue outfit. I swallowed and turned away after getting a good look. I've never been too fond of Nora's human buddies.

"Who's this?" Brie didn't sound as hostile as she had on some occasions because the girl wasn't threatening to her in beauty stakes. On at least one occasion Nora made an impeccably beautiful friend, Brie was in one of the foulest moods I've ever seen her in, and barely ever talked to the girl, ignoring her pretty much all the time. I can't even remember her name; she was beautiful with her raven black curls, Siberian husky blue eyes and paling skin, but was shallow and even vainer than Brie at times. On this occasion, Brie sounded more curious than hostile.

"This!" Elenora raised her hands above her head in theatrical mannerisms, "Is Nelle Hillon!" Hillon, that surname rung a bell and I eventually remembered where it was from several hours later. She was the daughter of one of my adoptive mother's colleagues at work, kinda nifty I guess. Little did I know how much this seemingly average girl was going to change my life in so many ways…


	3. The Fullers

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight Stephenie Meyer does, however I do own any original concepts which arise in this. I do not own Brie Gwin De Luca however; she belongs to my close friend, and the incredible,** **frostfur72****, and so give her all credit please guys!**

**A/N: Here we are on Chapter 3 and it's in Nelle's POV again, with the upcoming one to be in Rhett's again. This chapter happens on a Friday and reveals some important factors to my story I must explain to you, my readers. First of all, this isn't set in either the book or film universe, its set in a mixture between the two which you'll notice due to several choices I make whilst writing. Second of all, this is the first chapter in which Rhett and Nelle interact but he acts a little strange and do not worry, I am not going to rush any of the romance involved because that might dampen the story. And thirdly, and most importantly, Bree Tanner isn't dead in my fanfic! Call it set in a 'paradox/what if universe' because she didn't die after the confrontation but the next chapter is going to explain this in much more detail so you'll understand it better. I loved Bree so much and thought to myself, why don't I make it so she survived? To be fair, I only decided whilst writing this chapter, so that's why she wasn't mentioned in the former one but she is in this one, I did not accidentally have a continuity error this time luckily. R & R please, thank you!**

Beautiful. That was the first thing that came to mind when I was presented with the rest of Nora Wise's family, whom either shared her surname or were Fuller. I was surprised when Nora, one of our schools' infamous new students was placed next to me in Spanish, and then decided that she wanted to become my friend and began talking to me, but her family shocked me even more. Firstly, I've never been key social butterfly material; like everyone else, I've wished to be more popular, but never achieved it; and secondly and possibly most importantly, was the friendliness of Nora which shocked me. Most people when their new are attracted to those with bursting friendliness and personality, people such as Hannah Lambert, Anna Guerra or Lydia Wong; not people like me who prefer to fade into the background. But Nora Wise, one of our new students, began talking to me as if we were best friends.

And then, when the bell had rung, she insisted on introducing me to her rather large, extensive adoptive family, including her adoptive brother and boyfriend, Damon. When she first told me that, I was a little bemused, but slowly adjusted to it as I led her down to our school's cafeteria. She told me she had siblings in our year, two, but neither of them had been in my four previous classes, and I had my last period after lunch, History. According to her, after I showed her my timetable, her brother Rhett would be in that class, and I wasn't too sure what to think after she led me over to the table. He'd taken Double History, she'd told me, whilst I'd only taken singular, which explained why he was only in one of my classes for the subject.

Vanessa had given me a strange look from the seat at our usual lunch table when she saw me with one of the new students, approaching the table they'd chosen but it wasn't a jealous or rude look, it was one of curiosity which made her border lining amber eyes glimmer. As she'd walked me over, Nora's impossibly long hair the colour of copper had waved slightly, bobbing with each step she took from her meagre 5'0" height which made me feel a lot taller. Till I met Damon. Nora, similarly to the way he must've, had immediately caught the entire of our Spanish classes attention the second she stepped into the small room. Her skin was a ghastly, white sheet colour which made me question if she was down with flu, but when she spoke it was crystal clear she wasn't; her face was rounded with dimples in her smile, and her eyes were an unusual golden colour I'd never seen before, but like her emerald coloured blazer, they made a pretty contrast with her copper coloured river of hair which was reaching her thighs. Her nose was snubbed and made her seem cuter and slightly younger than everyone else in the class, going well with her filled out lips which parted into a sunny smile, the sunniest I'd ever seen, when she walked in. And her voice had the thickest Irish accent I'd ever heard, although it was the first I'd ever heard in person.

I'd assumed no-one could top her eye-catching, stunning appearance, but the rest of her family seemed to match her on open ground of astounding beauty and wonder. Something almost inhuman about the five of them put together. Damon sat nearest to where we were standing, and the height difference between him and Nora borderlined comedic it was so stunning; whilst she stood at a small, unimpressive 5'0", he towered over the rest of the student body at an impossibly tall 6'7", an entire _foot_ and one inch taller than myself. He was of Hispanic origin, his skin possessing that lovely olive hue, with a face made of almost entirely straight lines and sharp edges, with prominent features, but soft, smooth lips curved into a smile just as curious as the look in Vanessa's eyes. His hair was cut short and curling at the ends, the colour of raven feathers, and showed off the silver pieces of metal embedded into his ears. He was dressed in an old, tattered looking grey t-shirt which was such a dark shade it almost borderlined the colour black, an expensive, but strangely plain silver pendent hung around his neck and brushing against the collar of the t-shirt, whilst fully black jeans which flared outwards at then ends coated his long, muscular legs which seemed to stretch on for miles.

My eyes drifted across the table to the two who were sitting on the opposite side, and clearly the most beautiful to look at. Nora had mentioned their names as Leon and Brie, with the former being her older brother, although he'd apparently took after their dad more and I could tell. His facial features were sharp where her's were soft, but perfect in the midst of his lean, sculpted face which was outlined with a crop of short, treacle blonde hair, cut above his ears just like Damon's was. He stood at 6'2" and was leaning back into his chair, his long, papery white arms a couple shades darker than Nora's own, were resting on the back of his head, so he was clearly more comfortable. He had a deep grey-green hoodie, partly covering the night sky black t-shirt with the Five Finger Death Punch band logo covering the centre, and greyish coloured jeans with blackish-blue bovver boots; kinda like the punk look but he had his own flair about it. Everything about him seemed defined and he was that 'bad-boy' sort of attractive which a lot of high school girls are attracted to, although he didn't seem to have that cocky, brash nature about him which most typical 'bad-boys' are. His golden eyes, just like all the others I'd noticed, blazed hypnotically within his beautiful face, matching his amused, intelligent grin.

For a second I thought he was the most beautiful, til I looked a little to my right and saw Brie, making my entire perception of that change. Her face was heart-shaped, with rose petal lips, and a light pink blush peppering her cheeks, with her long, slim nose improving her perfect facial balance and her skin was a creamy colour, a light, delicate white shade which didn't make her look ill like Brie or ghostly like Leon, but made her look like a storybook faerie, or maybe even a faerie princess. Her perfect face was outlined with a rolling waterfall of lush; smooth waves the colour of fudge chocolate which stopped just a few cm's above her waistline. I placed her height at about 5'8", and her clothes were equally as perfectly chosen as her features had been by whoever created her. Again, her eyes were golden and looked slightly honeycomb when compared to her beautiful hair which rolled down her back, and I instantly envied her. There was something so angelically beautiful about her, almost inhumanly so; I wished I could've looked like her. She was dressed in a white tank top a couple shades lighter than Nora's skin, and she had a pair of icy blue jeans on, with a pair of beige heeled boots reaching her calf-line; a lavender coloured leather jacket was draped across the back of her chair.

Finally, I cast my glance back to the side of the table where Nora was supposed to be sitting, but had still taken her place standing next to me. The final family member, I'd originally missed, was leaning now, so I could see past Damon and properly look at him. It must've been Rhett, the one who was apparently going to be in my History class, seeing as I'd put names to faces when relating towards the other three sitting there. His face was softer than Damon's and Leon's, with his mouth being softer, his nose being less sharp and his liquid topaz eyes holding a much more peaceful, yet distant gaze to them, as if he wasn't sure what to say or do. The hair which outlined his face was unbrushed and a little bit longer than his brothers, just covering his ears, but not notably so and was the deep, almost soothing colour of caramel. His paler coloured outfit enforced this softer look about him; his jacket was dark, the colour of mist in the early hours in the morning, but a little lighter than Damon's and went well with his navy blue t-shirt, and much lighter blue jeans the colour of a cloudy sky, contrasting well with his pure white converse shoes. After glancing at me he swallowed, almost painfully tight, leaned back and concentrated back on his food, as if bored or uninterested.

That small gesture offended me slightly but I didn't open my mouth to confront him about his response, and figured maybe I was just too boring for him. Being as beautiful and mysterious as he was, I obviously wouldn't peak his interest in any way, although I tried to pretend it didn't care and apparently my act worked because Brie spoke up and I figured either they didn't realise or were used to Rhett giving girls of his age the cold shoulder.

"Who's this?" She asked; her voice was elegant, velvety and soft, like Honour Blackman's, unlike Nora's soprano which was so loud it almost borderlined into a shout.

"This!" Nora practically threw her hands above her head in over the top, theatrical fashion, like an actress receiving her awards at a formal ceremony. "Is Nelle Hillon!"

Damon nodded, his lips pursed into a playful smirk. "Nice to see you've made a new friend, _Eleanor_." I felt my eyes go wide and stared at her. I did not know this.

"Don't call me that!" Nora snapped in her high pitched vocal tone. "I've told you time and time again that it's Nora! Eleanor is far too formal and besides, I wanted to tell Nelle that myself!" She snapped quickly. "Sorry!" She said quickly, turning to me and smiling apologetically. "Damon often forgets himself, don't you?" He responded by rolling his eyes, and Nora tutted, shaking her head but she obviously wasn't mad. "For that, you can get Nelle a chair."

"Fine!" He sighed, rolling his eyes and walking off to find a spare one, which wasn't too hard in our small, slightly cramped school cafeteria. Most people chose to eat outside but my friends and I had always eaten in here so we were sure we'd have a table reserved for when it rained. It seemed the Fuller/Wise family had either had the same idea, or just preferred eating inside, and hated the overbearing summer sunshine just as much as me. At this though I shook my head and smiled slightly, looking down at her as she'd decided to sit down in her own chair whilst Damon fetched mine.

"Where should I sit?" I asked her, worried if I chose the wrong seat the situation would become awkward or I could end up accidentally getting too close to someone's personal space or inside their 'personal bubble' as I'd once done before with Lissy. I've always found 'personal bubbles' stupid and pointless things to believe exist, but some people, especially those with extreme claustrophobia I presume, clearly like having space between them and others.

"You can sit next to me," Brie said before Nora could speak again, and the more she spoke, the more she made me think of the British actress Honour Blackman. They had that same, almost purringly elegant voice, which I remembered the time I watched _Goldfinger_ with my dad and Misha. She gestured to the empty space next to her and smiled which blossomed her face into a perfect flower of beauty and generalized perfection. "It'll be nice to get to know you, seeing as Nora will probably practically invent you into our new lodger." With that all four of them laughed, including Rhett whose eyes remained on his plate of food. But I could pick out their laughs easily enough; Rhett's was sweet, like honey, and rolled slightly, whilst Nora's was high pitched and immediately made me smile as well, like infectious laughter. Brie's was light and fluttering, almost like a flute's sound, whilst Leon's was like a bark, piercing and slightly sarcastic.

Just at that moment, Damon returned and dropped the chair down next to me in the spot which Brie had gestured towards, and after a brief hesitation, I took my seat. The strong, overpowering yet lovely scent of rose and jasmine hit me and my nose crinkled slightly like whenever a potent, powerful smell hits me.

"I think you went on perfume overkill this morning, sweetie," the voice made me look up and I was slightly surprised at who'd spoke. Leon. His accent was strongly Texan, like that Southern drawl, and was sharp like his laughter. He gently patted Brie's shoulder and she scowled at him, but it was all light and non-serious. Just by the endearment term he'd used I could tell him and Brie were in a relationship; I've never met a boy who calls his sister, biological or not, 'sweetie' without it having a much deeper meaning.

"Sorry about that," Brie smiled lightly at me, before looking back at Leon. "Oh well, smells nice, doesn't it? Anyways," she returned her glimmering eyes to me and cocked her head to the side slightly, her long curls falling over her shoulder, coating most of her shoulders and tank top with the chocolate waves. "Got any interesting knowledge or information on this place?"

I smiled slightly and shook my head. "Not really. Nothing ever happens here. No murders, no gun crime, not even shoplifting really; it's one of the quietest towns in the state, as well as one of the mistiest, and the coldest but I don't really mind. I burn easily in hot weather so I've never really liked the summers."

"I can agree with you on that." She replied. "None of us are big hot weather fans either, but our parents are! Every time we have a spout of good weather they take us off to do water sports in the rivers and lakes behind our house. We always pick sports near water because they're so lovely, there's something so peaceful about water."

"Where do you live?" I asked, curious after she'd bought this up. I was aware they must've lived out of town, because none of the big houses in town had ever had any for sale signs going up.

"In this custom built house," It was Leon who replied, not Brie this time. His accent seemed to make everything have an edge to it somehow, as if it immediately made his voice more eye-catching and special, which I found accents, always did. "In the forests surrounding this place," he grinned. "We like being closer to nature because our adoptive mom gets headaches easily, so we often don't live in busy places or town centres. That's why we chose here; it's quite and pretty dull, no offence to you or anything, but we like dull. Lots of action, adventure and horror aren't really our, as mom would say, 'cup of tea'." For the last three words he put on a bad English accent which made the other four smile and I found myself grinning as well. "How about you?" He asked politely.

"I live near the town centre, but not directly in it." I said, not really sure how to describe the location of me and my mom's white plaster, two story house with two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen-diner, front room and conservatory. "We more or less moved nearer to the hospital because my mom's a nurse there, and liked the fact she can now walk."

"Your mom works at the hospital, cool, so does ours." Damon said with a grin, that I couldn't really place but he seemed amused again. "Our mom works there too; children's ward."

"My mom moves around," I shrugged. "She's worked in the children's sector before but mainly works with the midwife team for some reason. Maybe she's just one of those people who loves working with babies, I d'know." I smiled slightly. "For the record, her names Helena Hillon in case your mom's met her."

"I'll keep that in mind," Damon smiled. "Our mom's called Letitia Fuller, but she sometimes goes by her maiden name, Wise, so you'll have to look out for her." I smiled and nodded. The only thing truly bugging me was that Rhett hadn't said anything, and I wondered if my presence had unnerved or maybe irritated him, like he didn't really like me being around, but I couldn't voice this worry because it'd surely cause offense one way or another so I simply bit my tongue and stared at the table. I'd not eaten but I wasn't really hungry, mom had given me a large pancake based breakfast, so I wasn't really up for much food that day anyways. But it was the voice which filled the silence which truly made my stomach clamp and then lurch violently; not in an ill, sick way, but in a sort of…Well, _shocked_ way.

"Gee, Nora, I'm surprised you haven't invited her over yet." The voice made my eyes go slightly wider because it could only belong to one person; the texture was soft, yet cold and slightly flat, as if he was trying to emote as little as possible when addressing me as a subject matter. It was Rhett. Rhett was finally talking. Although he didn't sound pleased that he was.

Nora's response to his statement was a simple, slightly agitated eye roll, and she frowned slightly at him. "I can't do that Rhett, and you know why."

"Please expand." Rhett almost snapped back, looking at her like he was uncomfortable with the situation, before briefly casting a glance towards me and the hostility dropped, he simply looked bashful and a little ashamed, dropping his head back down towards the table whilst Nora rolled her eyes but responded to what he'd said, although it was clearly directed at me, not him. She spent the entire time looking at me, and didn't even so much as flicker her eyes towards Rhett as she explained what he'd said.

"Sorry about him," she sighed quickly before proceeding to explain the situation. "Basically we have family coming over this weekend. It's our cousins from Washington, they're going to visit us because we haven't seen each other in a couple of months, and we like to keep in touch. There's eight of them in total, so we made sure we built our house extra big for when they, or our other cousins in Alaska, come down to visit us. Y'know, so it's not just like some bizarre sleepover where we're all sharing rooms." I smiled slightly at the mentioning of Alaska, due to my childhood wish, and Nora smiled back, as if she'd totally forgotten Rhett's behaviour.

"What are their names?" I asked politely, trying to keep her spirits up, and trying to push Rhett's odd outburst to the back of my own mind, wondering if _I_ was the problem.

"Carlyle is our dad's brother, then there's his wife Esme, and their adoptive kids. Yeah," she grinned at my slightly surprised expression. "Our family seems to like adopting people, I know, but I'll continue!" She laughed lightly, like a small trickle of water running through a stream. "There's Rosalie and Emmet, Jasper and Alice, Bella and Edward, with their little girl Renesmee, and then there's Bee."

"Well," Leon cut in at this point. "Bee's actual name is Bree, but seeing as we've also got our lovely Brie, only she spells it 'B-R-I-E' instead of the usual 'B-R-Double E', she shortened her own name to Bee so people didn't get confused when we met up as a family."

"Exactly!" Nora said airily and grinned, continuing her line of speech. "Basically, the eight of them are going to come and visit us, so we can sorta have a housewarming party! I would've invited you it's just…"

"No! It's fine!" I said quickly, stopping her from feeling bad. "It'd seem a little weird if someone you'd only met the day before turned up for a family party. Besides, it's like, your family, and my dad might be coming down this weekend anyways with his wife and my half-siblings, so I'll be busy."

"Your dad doesn't live with you?" Leon raised an eyebrow, staring directly at me.

"No. My parents divorced when I was two years old," I shrugged slightly and smiled thinly. "He lives in Salt Lake City, and as I said, I'm not a hot weather fan so even if he had won the custody battle, I'd have never really enjoyed living there anyways. The weather is just…Like a sauna and I cannot stand it so…Yeah…" I smiled awkwardly as I drifted off.

"Don't worry!" Brie cut in, laughing that beautiful wind chime laugh again. "Like I said, we're not hot weather fans either, so you're not alone. Seriously, I've never got the appeal though; whenever its hot all you do is sweat and get agitated, but when the hot weather moves on, everyone suddenly begins whining about it being too cold. People are far too fickle these days; they can never make up their minds on anything, not just weather. How to run countries, fight wars, even simple things like divorces are now ending with murders because one spouse is too greedy for his or her own good. Things must've been a lot nicer two hundred years ago." Damon rolled his eyes.

"Okay Little Miss Past Lover, we get your point, but in all due fairness, she has a point." With that they all erupted into conversation on how life must've been back in the olden days but Brie kept her eyes on me, a slightly sad shine to them, or maybe it was disappointment or pity.

"I'm sorry about Rhett," she said almost shamefully, turning to face me, her slender body and gorgeous face looking even more perfect once she was facing me totally. "He just…Isn't too good around new people, he never has been, so don't' take it personally. Seeing as your in his next class, I'll make him walk you there as an apology." I laughed slightly at that and her smile grew. "I'm serious, Nelle, he needs to learn to control his temper a little better. He's just…"

"Nelle!" Nora cuts me off from her position in which she has now taken, which is on the table; she moved so quietly I didn't even here and for once was staring up at her, only not by much though. "I have just had the perfect idea!" Her face broke into an immaculate grin which everyone immediately shared, even Rhett, although his was a little more wistful than the other three's. "Why don't you come round on Sunday?" That shocked me. She hadn't even know me a day and she was already insisting I visited her house? Nora Wise was just way too kind for her own good. "I know our parents would love to meet you, and so would the rest of the family! I mean, seeing as you're now my friend, you'll need to get to know me!"

"Friend basis already?" Leon raised a blonde eyebrow. "You do move fast, Nora! How do we know Nelle considers you here friend?" He challenged her cheekily.

"Oh no!" I said quickly, smiling slightly. "We're definitely friends. I'm just surprised you want me to visit your home so quickly! Most of my friends have never been so openly hospitable towards me on the same day we've met, but maybe you're just more confident in me." I laughed a little at that myself. "Um…How will I get to yours?" I asked. I've never been good when it comes to directions, so if she gave me them, I could end up driving around the woodland roads in my mom's black 4x4 for several hours, and that was if she wasn't needing to use it herself.

"We'll pick you up." Rhett spoke for a second time that day and my eyes immediately diverted to him; the second I did, he blinked, almost as if he temporarily forgot he was supposed to and shrugged softly. "And I'll pick you up personally." I felt my eyes widen in shock. Had Nora just talked Rhett into making it up to me? Or was this him genuinely being nice? I'd known him for only about an hour, so I had no idea, but I decided that responding politely was the best option to take.

"Thanks." I smiled at him, polite as ever. "It's much appreciated."

"And I'll walk with you to History as well," he looked at Brie regarding that but she just smugly raised her eyebrows and grinned innocently. "Not like _anyone_ manipulated me into that one." But his tone was lighter, playful, and he clearly didn't mean it harshly; he seemed to become more acceptant of my presence and back then I had no clue why he'd even acted strangely at first. Little did I know how much the truth behind it all would surprise me.

* * *

Being seen with one of our school's eponymously 'bizarre, odd or strange' new kids got me a lot of stares as I tried to make my way down the corridor to History with Rhett. Most of the looks were the typical 'why does he want to walk with _her_?' or 'are they an item already' but a few caught me off guard although I tried to ignore them. Most people wouldn't see me as the sort to attract someone as outwardly attractive as Rhett Fuller probably because of my weight; as petty as it sounds, I still get the odd look when it comes to the subject of diet or weight in Personal Development, often shortened to 'PD' by most, which still sting, even now. We weren't even holding hands or linking arms, just walking next to each other, but according to some people at my school, that naturally equalled 'dating'. Rhett simply rolled his eyes at the stares and turned to me, as if he could sense my insecurity.

"You don't need to worry about the looks they give you, y'know," he smiled softly, staring down at me, his eyes warmer. "It's just an assumption and you can be the bigger person by ignoring it." I knew he was talking from personal experience; being that attractive meant that obviously women would want to attract him and I figured that's why most of the people staring were female, not male. One of the people staring was our year's formerly prettiest girl, and I say formerly because the second Brie and Nora arrived, she was bumped down to third place on the list. It was Lisa Sellers in all of her 5'4" of perfect, normal beauty.

Her slim, tanned face which was a natural colour, which matched the rest of her, watched curiously, her eyes shining slightly as she watched. Her eyes were a light, crystalline, sapphire blue which contrasted deeply with her hair the colour of raven feathers, similar to Damon's, only much longer, reaching her elbows and straight as a plank of wood. Her figure was slim and neat, with a decent sized chest, and she looked wonderful as ever in her white dress shirt, greyish-blue waistcoat and short, navy skirt which accented her long, tanned legs. Lisa's almond shaped eyes watched us cautiously, but she didn't make her move or say anything, she just stared before heading off in the other direction to go to her own class, which I had no idea of the subject.

"Anyone asked you out yet?" I asked him somewhat awkwardly, briefly glancing up at his 6'0" stance and lean, slender build, which looked taller compared to me. My question caused him to look downwards and he shrugged lightly, clearly unsure of how to truly answer my question.

"Not specifically _asked_, but hinting has been clear. People such as my English partner, Joanne Taylor, the Lisa Sellers girl, and a couple more girls in my Gym gave me what Nora calls the 'once over'." After telling me the basics, he concluded to clear his throat somewhat gruffly and looked back down at me, before swallowing tightly yet again. "Look um…" I'd guessed what was coming and somewhat braced myself for what was coming. "I'm sorry about how I was at lunch I just forgot myself." He mumbled. "If you hadn't guessed I just…Wasn't sure about Nora inviting you over so soon. People have used her before just so they can get close to me because I'm single, and, for some reason, I simply assumed you'd done the same thing. I'm sorry."

I smiled shyly, nodded slightly and looked up at him. "It's fine…I guess I can understand why they'd do that." I laughed, albeit awkwardly, but he smiled back and shrugged. "But I hadn't even seen you when I met Nora so it was kinda impossible for me to go using Nora to get to you because I barely knew anything about you. She told me you didn't have a girlfriend though, like…She was trying to play match maker." He laughed properly at that and for the first time I appreciated the sound, it was lighter than Damon's and fresher than Leon's, and I felt the colour rise slightly to my cheeks. It was weird hearing him laugh, even now when I look back it felt weird to me.

"She's done this before." He sighed, shaking his head and laughing still. "She often meets someone and somehow evaluates their personality within an hour, then decides whether she's right for me. She picks nice girls often enough but…" The smile faded now and he simply looked between a mixture of guilty and wistful. "They have a habit of never truly being right for me, I guess. I admit, I'm picky, fussy, rude and cold and possess all sorts of negative traits, but I don't like hurting those girls because they often truly fall for me…"

"Don't beat yourself up about it." I smiled slightly and looked up at him before lightly placing my hand on his shoulder, surprised at how cold his jacket felt. "Here we are the other History classroom the school uses." I looked back up at him. "Hopefully you'll get a seat next to me." And that time, when he smiled, my stomach lurched again, but in another way all over, and I looked down at the floor. Little did I know what was awaiting me regarding Rhett Fuller.


	4. Family Ties

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight Stephenie Meyer does, however I do own any original concepts which arise in this. I do not own Brie Gwin De Luca however; she belongs to my close friend, and the incredible,** **frostfur72****, and so give her all credit please guys!**

**A/N: Here we are with Chapter 4! Sorry that it's been so long guys; school has recently kicked back into action and I'm doing exams, so my posts might, and probably won't be as fluent as they have been. So, here we are, expressing ourselves in Chapter 4! Basically you get a little more insight into the Fuller Family, as well as new drug Quincy has managed to develop, and the upcoming situation which might throw everything off track! Rhett's musing on what to do regarding Nora's 'new human friend', as well as contemplating his own loneliness being the only single family member. Poor Rhett, if only there was someone waiting for you out there! Oh wait…There is! Yay! Well, we finally meet the families 'mum' figure, as well as why the Cullens will be visiting the Fullers. You're going to be seeing more OCs in the upcoming chapters, but they won't all be key to the plot, don't you worry.**

Avoiding Nora proved easier than I originally feared, with the help of Leon of course; based off the one, burningly cold look she gave me at lunch, I could tell I was in for one of her famous lectures. One snarky comment over a lunch table and she decides I'm in for a telling off. Sometimes she makes me question who the _real_ mum in our family is. Okay, so what, I was rude to one of her human friends! I apologized, walked the girl to History and even sat next to her for an entire hour, and…Actually enjoyed her company. Although my attitude towards them may seem unkind, I don't_ hate_ humans; I may strongly dislike some, possibly even most of them, but I've never truly _hated_ a human. None of them have really left enough impact on my life enough for me to hate them. But, on the odd occasion, like this one, I have liked one.

Maybe there was just something so endearing about how strangely nice, in a somewhat awkward manner, she was. I blamed her somewhat awkward social interactions with me based upon the fact pretty much all of the nineteen other students kept casting me and her glances during the various points in the lesson. One girl, an Amelia Fischer, kept turning round in her seat two rows in front of us, staring with her large, cleary blue eyes that reminded me of a goldfishes'. It was lucky for her that she was neither pale skinned, neither had red hair, or I might've wondered if she was actually some strange form of werefish. Her hair was a beige brown, the colour of fudge I'd say, and she had tanned, russet skin like someone from Native American origins; although her constant staring was beginning to annoy me. She had a cousin who was also in our year, an Erik Fischer who'd been in my Gym class, and looked almost disturbingly similar to her only he stood at about 5'4" and his eyes were a dark brown, darker than his hair the colour of fudge. The only upside to him was he hadn't constantly stared at me for the hours lesson, unlike she felt obliged to. After giving us a stare, one of which managed to last well over two minutes, she'd always turn back to her partner next to her, a girl whose name I didn't know but had one of the most precise, tightest, blondest French plats I'd ever seen, and they'd gossip.

With hearing like mine, I naturally picked up the entire of their drab, meaningless conversation, and it was typically shallow high school girl talk which soured my mood a little more for that afternoon. They basically chit-chatted about the possibilities of what my relationship with Nelle Hillon was like and they wondered if we were already going out after an hour of knowing each other. If I concentrate hard enough, I think the blonde haired girl's name was Lizzy, but that wasn't what particularly interested me; it was more their opinions of myself, my family and Nelle which caught my attention. They thought that me, Damon and Leon were unspeakably 'hot', aka attractive, and that they deeply envied Nora, but especially Brie on a much larger, more embittered scale, and they thought Nelle was a little odd. They thought it was strange the way she was friends with both the mayor's son, Isaac William, and best friends with the sheriff's daughter, Vanessa Hooper, but more importantly that someone as 'gorgeous' as me had paid attention to her. Both girls, especially Amelia, thought she was plain, awkward and more importantly, not the thinnest girl in school, so couldn't understand why I'd become friends with her.

What annoyed me the most was the way they automatically assumed we'd achieved friendship status. Just because two people sit together and get along, does not automatically equal friendship, they're what you may call friendly acquaintances. Nelle was nice enough, and my sister and she were definitely friends seeing as Nora had seen it as necessary to invite her over on Sunday, but I would not call Nelle Hillon my friend under any circumstances at the time. Friendships take at least a couple of days to build; spending about two hours together, in school mind you, does not equal the friendship status in my mind. But Amelia Fischer and her friend, Lizzy, or whatever her true name was, weren't the real annoyance History class bought me that day. It was someone entirely different.

Despite my age, I still found it unbelievable that people would actually still name their children things such as Gladys; however my sympathy for the girl ended there. The first thing that hit me when I entered the classroom was a worryingly strong, pungent, disgusting stench; the overpowering, overbearing aroma of wet dog hit me directly in the face I walked into the room, and I was immediately able to trace the scent to the very back of the classroom, where a cluster of _them_ sat, all slightly hunched over but unmistakably glowering. Directly at me. They were all pretty much clones of one another; tall, with pale skin, not as pale as Nelle's but close enough, with blonde hair although it was more cream than blonde, and the strangest eyes I'd ever seen. A yellowish colour, not golden like ours, but strange still; and this is Rhett Fuller, a _vampire_, calling someone else strange. But I knew which one was the leader of sorts, a girl of about 5'11" height, with a long, lean body and lacking chest area; her face was sharp and angular, with a point to the end of both her jaw and nose, and one of the most seething glowers I'd ever seen on someone of her age. I would later discover her name was Gladys Webster, but at the time I didn't particularly care about her name.

Over the years, I had managed to get along better with the shape shifting community, with an extra help from our cousins the Cullen's, but tolerance needs to go both ways, and I could tell the group of about five members hunched at the back of the classroom were not the tolerant type. Something told me they'd lived in this town, or at least some of them had, for a long time and had marked it as 'their territory'. Having a bunch of vampires appear on the scene would very much rock the status quo they'd gotten accustomed to over the years. My nostrils inevitably flared and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from gagging at the stench they were creating, but no doubtedly, I was having the exact same effect on them. I couldn't help but feel Gladys Webster's eyes boring into me as I walked over to my seat and took my place next to Nelle, but the uncomfortableness of the situation made me find it hard to concentrate for the remainder of the lesson. Only listening to Amelia Fischer and her blonde friend gossip, as well as talking to Nelle about what life was like in our former town of New Hampshire, distracted me from the sheer rudeness of Webster and her siblings. I mean, if you're going to stare practically unblinkingly at someone, at least have the decency to not let them know you're doing it.

The Webster girl and her presumable brothers, sisters, cousins or a mixture of all three almost made me forget totally about what Nora would be presenting me with the second I entered her car. Her lecture could span on for days, maybe even weeks, and if it was even worse, she'd end up mentioning it months later and constantly remind me of the fact of how rude I'd been to one of her human friends. Nelle was practically the only thing distracting me from my numerous issues, but I knew the shape shifters were the bigger problem out of the two. I knew they'd have some form of prejudice and issue towards us, even if it hadn't surfaced properly yet. Part of me wanted to ask Alice when she arrived if she could possibly see if we'd get into any form of confrontation but that would only have a more negative impact than it would good. The Webster shape shifters would have to decide what move to make, but I decided till then, keeping their existence to myself might be for the best.

* * *

Naturally though, I wasn't the only one who'd noticed the strange, unpleasant smell hanging around the girl I knew simply as Gladys Webster. Perhaps it was lucky that only Leon had really noticed it though, seeing as he was the one who owned a motorbike, the exact thing I needed in order to get home without Nora giving me her twelve hour lecture on manners and my lacking of them. Maybe it was because he was the youngest member of our family, only being eleven years old in vampire years, being turned in 2002. Maybe it was the fact that he was also the only one of us who'd been able to keep in contact with his human family afterwards; due to his biological father's job working with a company which specially helped vampires conceal their identities from the rest of the world, they were allowed to know of our existence. Some people may have argued this was unfair on some whose families could never see them once more, but I begged to differ. Leon had had a very troubled upbringing, and by "troubled", I do not mean abused, I mean relating towards his gift.

Leon's ability to produce electrical currents, physical, not mental like my other cousin, Kate's from Denali in Alaska; had ended up with him committing manslaughter at just the age of five. He'd accidentally stopped his female best friend, Tara's heart upon contact through a massive electrical shock which he couldn't control, and it'd shaken him for many years, although her death sadly wouldn't be the last. Leon ended up killing numerous bullies who picked on him whenever he lost his temper with them and caused several mass blackouts whenever at a high emotional state when he was younger, leading for him to become incredibly shut in and pessimistic towards other's. I'd suspected Brie was the first person, not including his best friend Daron Hernandez, who'd managed to successfully break through that outer shell he'd carefully constructed for the self-preservation of not just himself, but of everyone around him. I still had no idea how Brie had talked him into their second wedding because he hated everyone's eyes on him.

That was the reason our cousins' from both sides, the Cullen's and Denali's, would be visiting us in North West. A wedding. Brie and Leon's to be more precise. Having a second wedding seemed a waste of time in my opinion, but Brie had been planning this for so long-aka a year, if we called it off now she'd go crazy and have yet another temper tantrum regarding towards all the subject of us "spoiling her wedding". We'd had to call off her previous planned out one because we were moving to Northwest at the time, and although she'd reacted surprisingly mature in the sense of her precious wedding plans being scarpered, I knew if one of us dared oppose her important planning, she'd be furious and her response wouldn't be the most mature of the ones she could possibly choose from. It helped that Leon was physically stronger than her, because her temper tantrum had the potential to cause a lot of circumstantial damage to our newly built home. But it also helped she and Leon weren't going all _Romeo & Juliet_ re-enactment in front of the rest of the school, and helped even more that this year they were posing a year apart from one another in age, so she was still in Art, whilst he'd already gotten out.

"You reek," Leon scoffed as I approached him, his nose crinkling in disgust at the smell of animal my body was holding about itself. "I still can't believe Daron's stench didn't bother me as a human, it's all so potent now." I couldn't believe it myself; it was so odd that they'd been friends for all those years, and still continued being friends now, even though they both probably smelt appalling towards each other. "And they kept giving you evils too?" Part of me is surprised Leon isn't a mind reader with the amount of accuracy his guesses make. I could simply nod at him and he leaned back against his carefully polished, pristine bike which he loved almost as much as Brie. "Let's just lay low, act normal, be practical and not…"

"I need your bike, Leon." I interrupted him sharply and his liquid golden eyes bored into my own, blonde eyebrows raising in surprise, his face showing mixed signals of confusion, shock, but most of all, curiosity. Leon's always been a big one for questions and answers, in his own words siting how he believed 'knowledge was power', and part of me agreed. But it didn't mean he couldn't be one of the more arrogant vampires you could ever come across. "Look, Nora is going to blow out at me big time for being rude towards her precious new human friend, Nelle Hillon. _PLEASE_," I practically begged him. "Just this once Leon, promise I'll never borrow it ever again, and I won't crash it or wreck it or something! Just let me borrow it for today and I'll be eternally grateful!"

Leon's handsome face fashioned itself into a smile and he cocked his head to the side, eyes glittering slightly, face a shining example of cold, intelligent attractiveness which so many women were drawn to. He stuck his hand into his pocket, pulling out a shiny, silver key which jangled in front of his face, sending tiny patches of light bouncing against his ivory coloured skin and held them out to me in his slightly weathered hand, the pair of the keys resting gently against the freezing temperature of his skin. "Take the bike and treat it like it's your child," he said harshly, his smile disappearing immediately, replaced by a stonewall of seriousness. "Treat my fucking bike like how you'll treat your mate when you find him or her." Something about Leon unnerved me when he turned on that serious look and his entire body language seemed to dip to a frighteningly opposite turn. The second I took the keys however, that business like smile returned and he stepped to the side, letting me get a good look at his magnificent bike. "By the way, Brie forgot to mention, the Roses' are coming to our second wedding too." I felt my eyes widen slightly at that, and quickly forced myself to blink again, fitting in with my human façade.

The Rose Coven are yet another branch of our adoptive family, although we barely saw them as much as we saw the Cullen's' and the Denali's. English born and bred, like myself, although they'd stayed over there, preferring the familiar atmosphere of the United Kingdom. Currently they were living on the Isle of White, enjoying living near the sea. The Roses' coven was slightly larger than ours, with eight members unlike our seven, but smaller than the Cullens'. Their head was Kathleen Mews, a milkmaid who'd turned her own son, Dominic during the smallpox epidemic during the 17th century; she'd learned to control herself in an amazing amount of time whilst facing human blood, only taking six months to survive on animal blood. Her family sometimes alternate however, using Dominic's ability to sense someone with a 'blackened aura' to hunt only the worst human beings known to man. Seven years after turning Dominic, Kathleen, along with her son, met the newborn vampire Antony Rose, and the two became mates, forming their coven. Eventually, they were joined by Dominic's mate, Aurora Higgins, and two more vampire couples; Cesar and Violetta Vestra, as well as Warren and Carolyn Hines. I knew I'd enjoy seeing them when I did, because I got along with all of them. Maybe because we were all English we bonded better?

"Anyone else I should know of whose attending?" I asked him, knowing he was going to provide me with yet another name I recognized but hadn't seen in a while. This was confirmed by his nod.

"Yep! You'll never guess who might finally be returning home!"

"Who?" I asked him politely.

"Daniel and Maisha." I felt myself gawp in what seemed like several centuries, and I knew that was true. Leon's hushed, slightly teasing town coupled with my reaction made him smirk smugly and he rested his arms behind his head, grinning superiorly. Part of me was more surprised they'd even considered giving up their peaceful life in the Highlands of Scotland to return to Daniel's original adoptive family and their impending chaos warrant; but once thinking about, I knew they'd have returned soon enough, without a doubt. Daniel Cullen is the Cullen families' second adoptive son figure, being turned by Esme shortly after Carlisle turned Edward; although he often has a habit of disappearing off back to Scotland every once in a while to see how his brother, Andrew's children and their descendants are getting on, posing as a friendly acquaintance and becoming closer to them just by becoming a close family friend who understood them. Daniel was born Daniel Lockhart to Scottish farmers on the 6th of October, 1905, a year after his brother Andrew. One day, whilst tending sheep aged nineteen years old, he was attacked by a wolf which had escaped from a nearby circus and almost died because of it. Esme told me she, Carlisle and Edward had been visiting Scotland to, ironically, see them same circus which supposedly had the wolf 'safely contained' and they'd smelt the blood from the attack, due to the Lockhart farm being in a close premise. She was the one who found Daniel and had managed to control her bloodlust, instead turning him to add to the family.

Daniel's wife, Maisha Cullen, nee Tillman, was born and raised in Philadelphia in the 1940's, and aged eighteen already had a seemingly promising career in the journalism field. In 1961, Maisha met Daniel whilst the Cullens had set up shop there and fell in love with him, likewise with him and her, even accepting him being a vampire when he finally told her, and he decided to turn her as a form of pure love for her accepting nature. Maisha and Daniel would often travel around various places in Europe, with Daniel's ability of retrocognition-the opposite of Alice's precognition, due to his ability to instead look directly into the past, meant he knew which places were the best for the Cullens to stay, often making the best decisions relating towards wherever they chose to live. It was probably his absence since 2004 which resulted in the Cullens meeting the Black and Uley packs' in Forks, Washington, because if he'd been there, he would've seen that Forks was shapeshifter territory. Daniel's speculated his ability comes from his impeccable memory since childhood, never forgetting anything, which extended into retrocognition upon him becoming a vampire.

"When are they arriving…"

"Already here," he cut me off, grinning even more intensely. "By the way, Brie's gonna be here soon, she just went to tell Nelle of our special day on Sunday so she turns up in the correct attire," he nodded towards the direction where she must've been. I swear those two have a psychic connection or something along those lines to know where one another are constantly. "But back to Dan and Maisha," he gestured with his right hand loosely. "They arrived around 2 this afternoon; Quincy sent me a text, saying they've got the spare room in the attic and that they probably aren't gonna head out much apart from hunting, as so they don't attract suspicion from the locals. I mean, a bunch of attractive, youngish people all whom know each other showing up for a wedding of two apparent teenagers never looks normal, so they've all promised not to try socializing too much and only head out to the big cities if they want to do shopping or something. Knowing Brie, Rosalie, Alice, Nora, Maisha and Carolyn, that will be for most of the week. Good job Bella's got Violetta and Aurora to keep her company, not to mention her adorable daughter." He laughed slightly, but there was a bitterness to it, and he looked slightly miserable behind the cheerful façade he was presenting not just myself, but himself too. Brie and Rosalie had always bonded over the concept of children, so when Renesmee was born, Brie had a similar reaction to Rose, pampering the little girl with affection and attention. So when Quincy announced he was attempting to study vampire genes so we could conceive children, she'd readily accepted to be his first test subject once it was complete, and she'd been waiting ever since.

"How's the drug going?" I asked him quietly. Leon had been asking a lot of questions regarding the experiment ever since the idea had been conceived, and was probably the second most up to date member of our family, with only Brie asking even more.

"Well," he smiled, and to my relief, this one was genuine. "Quincy says the genes he took from Renesmee, Bella and Edward are responding well to the tests he's been doing on them. He reckons that if he can temporarily find a way to make the female vampire sex organs become active again; she'll be able to carry the child for nine months, acting practically human. The drug will apparently be ready for testing by Saturday," my eyes widened again and I stared. Quincy, aka dad, had only been working on the drugs for the past eighteen months, and even for him he'd made short work of something so revolutionary. He'd been incredibly intelligent as a human, and his almost inhuman intelligence made him a superhuman, or should that be _vampire_, genius as a vampire; but this was incredible even for him and I smiled after thinking that over. "Yeah, that fast," Leon nodded. "I haven't told Brie yet, want it to be a surprise, y'know?"

"Obviously," I smiled at him. "How do we know that the drug has worked then?"

"The baby will grow fast, just as it did with Bella, only taking a month to conceive. Although, unlike Bella, Quincy reckons Brie'll only be able to consume human food and function more like a human being, than a vampire. Because she's already a vampire, however, it's definite she'll survive because the injuries she might receive during the process of giving birth will immediately heal after the baby's been born. But we know it might not actually all work out, so I'm not getting my hopes up too high. All I'm praying is that it's going to work. Now," he said briskly and I took the keys off him. "Treat my bike with respect and I'll let you be godfather if the conception works, deal?"

"Deal." I managed to smile for what seemed like a long time.

* * *

Tree after tree had flown past me as I made my home, until they all swelled into a spiralling mess of ivy and rich brown colour combination. Part of me was wondering if riding Leon's beloved bike this fast was such a good idea, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind; ignoring it the best I could. My mind was preoccupied with wonders of Daniel, Maisha and the possibility of gaining an adoptive niece or nephew if Quincy's new drug was successful. If it was it might also help out our cousins, the Cullens, regarding towards their spat with the Volturi, due to their willingness to donate DNA samples influencing the fluid motions of my adoptive father's work. The stares several students had given my adoptive siblings when they returned to Nora's car, the four of them so exotic and beautiful, were luckily higher than the ones they gave me when I chose to drive away on Leon's bike. On Monday I was definitely bringing my own car, the blue Ferrari Lettie had bought me last year for my unofficial birthday, just so I wouldn't be forced to listen to Nora bitching at me if I wasn't sociable enough on Sunday. _I'd try_, I told myself.

When I arrived back, I was lucky to realise that Nora had gone out shopping after seeing the absence of her car, although she drove much fast than I would, and I'd taken the much longer route. Probably scouting for more over-priced makeup and jewellery for Sunday's wedding, to match her already odd turquoise gown and lighter blue coloured wrap; which, combined with her coppery red hair, would make her look the spitting image of a smaller, younger, skinnier Fiona Volpe from James Bond. Or maybe that was the look Nora had intended to go for, and Damon was going to go as Bond himself. I was yet to see either Leon or Brie's impeccable outfits, and had a feeling Rosalie was going to be helping her with hair and makeup duties, although Brie was borderline a professional makeup artist herself. Years of doing practicing on not just herself, but Letitia-our adoptive mother, and Nora too, not to mention all of our vampire cousins; Kate, Tanya, Carmen, formerly Irina, Kathleen, Aurora, Carolyn, Violetta, Alice and Rosalie all made perfect guinea pigs for her makeup practices. And Bella was probably well aware that she was next in line, whether she liked it or not.

The white BMW parked in our driveway would've alerted me that Daniel and Maisha had arrived early if Leon hadn't pre-informed me of their arrival earlier this afternoon. It all looked squeaky clean and like Maisha had spent hours scrubbing down the various layers of dirt which coated the outside paintjob; sometimes I swear she had a phobia of dirt or something, with the sheer amount of vigour she apparently put into cleaning. Although she never apparently cooked human food, I doubted that knowing how much she enjoyed socialising with humans; she'd grown up to be an impeccable cleaner over her years as a human, which had extended further once she became a vampire. Some could even claim it was a 'gift' like my ability to manipulate light or Brie's shapeshifting, but it'd always been on joking terms.

Our home looked like an oversized woodsman's place, with large darkly coloured glass windows, although it had an overall expensive outer vibe about it. The double doors which led into the huge hallway, with several rooms extending off into the downstairs rooms, and a large grand staircase heading upwards towards the bedrooms and other rooms, made it look impeccably grand, much grander than it would've if the doors weren't so ancient and carved with imagery which depicted beasts such as lions and dragons, mouths opened wide, exposing row upon row of expertly carved wooden teeth, some even with tongues lolling out of their open mouths. Their beady brown eyed stare could be classed as eerie, but I found them interesting, and often studied them whenever I went back inside the house. Looking back at the driveway, I smiled slightly to myself, realising how full of cars it'd become over the following days. Not many of our family members travelled in "built for family cars", so the sheer amount we'd end up finding parked in front of our house would be almost overpowering in number. Like a battalion row of metal boxes ready to leap into a battle.

Meaningless chatter could be heard coming from the living room, being exchanged between Letitia and Maisha, meaning that Daniel was probably out hunting somewhere or being lead around the surrounding areas by Leon or Damon. Vampires often like surveying the area so they know what to mark as their own territory; it's a very primal factor of our species, but something you come to accept and live with. Besides, we're very big on honour, always avenging those we care for, so you could definitely call us honourable by some standards. My adoptive mother has always been one for socializing and politeness, so I knew what I was in for the second I entered the room, but it was to be suspected. I gently opened the door to the living room, exposing me to a room primordially made up of warm, rich, dark colours, mainly reds and purples for this room at least; making it seem incredibly relaxing the second you walked inside. My mother, Letitia, and Maisha Cullen were sitting on the crimson red coloured recliner located against the right hand wall, surrounded by the various bookcases, computers, and our fireplace, with the switched off television sitting patiently above it.

My adoptive mother, Letitia Fuller, sometimes known as Letitia wise, could never pull herself off as our biological mother, just as how our adoptive father could never pull himself off as our biological father. She has simply always just been too young looking. Aged just twenty-three when she was turned, she could never pull herself off as the biological mother of two seventeen year olds (Damon and Nora), an eighteen year old (me) and two nineteen year olds (Leon and Brie), with the latter's being especially important to that idea. Standing at just 5'5", being our second smallest family member, my adoptive mother was apparently always petite and slender as she now is. Her dirty blonde, almost brown coloured hair, reaches down to her waist and is incredibly straight compared to Nora's unkempt birds nest or Brie's perfect, gentile waves. Her pretty, heart-shaped face combined with her soft, subtly beautiful features has combined to make her look eternally motherly in all people's eyes. Dressed in her light blue coloured jeans with her white slipper-style shoes and grey wrap-around top only enhanced the image to most people who've ever met her.

Maisha Cullen sat next to her, a notable three inches taller at 5'8", matching Brie whenever the stood next to her, although taller by maybe half an inch. Maisha's beauty has always been subtly gorgeous; with her being soft featured like my mother, although with a much more defined and polished look about her. Her eyes were the shape of the perfect almond, glowing golden; even after leaving the Cullens for Scotland to communicate with yet more of Daniel's ancestors, Maisha still managed to keep to the 'vegetarian' diet. Although not quite heart-shaped, her perfectly smoothed down face, and small, button nose made her look younger, yet fresher, than ever, looking perfect once combined with her full, pinkened lips. Her face was outlined with long, rolling waves of auburn coloured hair, the sort of hair most people dye to achieve, but she'd magically achieved the colour naturally. Her build was larger hipped and busty than most of the other women in our house, but made her more attractive in those senses, giving her a more substantial bosom than that of the females in my family. That aspect of her reminded me of Nelle Hillon, but I pushed that thought backwards, trying to ignore it promptly. Dressed in a black leather jacket which covered her t-shirt, with a navy coloured woollen scarf draped around her neck, and a pair of light blue shorts covering her bottom half, with a pair of light brown tights covering her legs, no shoes, a pair of black heels were sitting by the door.

"Rhett, how lovely to see you," Letitia, more commonly known as 'Lettie', smiled softly at me. "How was school?" That question always made me feel like she truly was my mother; it was so warm and maternal, even Leon who was still in contact with his biological family, caved in at that.

"It was fine," I nodded politely at Maisha who was staring at me, smiling slightly. "Did Nora tell you that she's inviting a human friend to the wedding?"

"Yes, she did," Lettie smiled at me. "And I'm positive that you're aware of why she's so desperate for you to get to know this girl she's become so friendly with. As I've told you, we'd never force a relationship upon any of you, so don't feel like Nora's concocted another one of her almost ridiculous schemes to pair you up with yet another human she's taken a liking to."

"Yeah…" I nodded then decided to change the subject. "Where's Daniel?"

"Out hunting," it was Maisha who answered this time, leaning back slightly into the sofa as she said so, the beautiful colouring of her hair fitting with the crimson red of the velvet material. "Leon offered to take him and Brie went with them. But it's nice to see you, Rhett." She smiled and stood up, walking over to me in a pace so slow it was almost human, and extended her hand towards me. "I was disappointed to hear you still haven't found your mate. Daniel and I were so hoping you'd have found her."

My hand connected with her's and I shook it promptly, shrugging slightly as I did so with my free shoulder. "I'll find them eventually," I nodded with sad smile. "Besides, Daniel had to wait for you, didn't he? Just like how Edward waited for Bella." She laughed slightly at that and nodded vigorously as she removed her hand.

"That's true. Lettie was also telling me about Quincy's recent scientific thingy," never exactly the…Smartest of people was Maisha, to put it politely. "It sounds amazing!" She grinned excitedly. "Even by vampiric standards! Now, why don't you tell me about how you've been doing for the past couple of years?" And so then I started, I began to tell her all about my life recently and explaining everything. Perfect manners always make a better impression, and personally, I like to make good impressions simply because it's common decency, not to mention just plain common sense to. I would've never attracted a mate however if I hadn't have been rude, oh the irony!

**Notes: -Maisha's name is pronounced MAY-SHA, for anyone confused on how to pronounce it.  
-Daniel Cullen wasn't present during the battle, along with Maisha; because he was helping the Fullers out with issues regarding enemies from Leon's past. He also wasn't present when Edward met Bella because he was still in Scotland with Maisha. **

**-The Rose Coven aren't as close to the Cullens as they are to the Fullers, but they might become closer over the wedding. They simply haven't seen each other as much due to living in England. **


End file.
